LIMA — The coming generation of employees are deciding which career path they want to take. The city of Lima’s youth employment program GenNext has concluded its pilot season helping students along the way. The Workforce and Small Business Development Coordinator Amber Martin weighed in on the program’s first year during Mayor Sheretta Smith’s weekly media briefing Wednesday.
“Throughout the eight weeks, we did hear back that youth gained insight into what their careers of choice really looked like in the real world,” Martin said. “We had one youth who is interested in architecture and also civil engineering. He was able within that first week to tell me the difference between the two, gaining that insight to know where he might want to go as a career.”
According to a previous article from The Lima News, the program helped to train and teach youth ages 16-24 in positions of their interest.
“Through this program, we did have over 1,000 hours of combined workforce experience and career areas of choice for these youth,” Martin said. “They have expressed where they were going after school and then through that the average wage was over $14 an hour. We increased income and households throughout these communities. We also heard from our employers and we were able to fill positions after this program. We had for youth who are hired on full-time and part-time going on into this fall.”
Martin also said the city plans to continue the program next year.
“We did feel like this was a successful pilot,” Martin said. “There are opportunities for growth, switching of services, improvement and modification. We do look forward to a 2024 season.”
Reach Precious Grundy at 567-242-0351.
